Under leaden skies, 3rd placed Brentwood entertained, Tring a place above them in the league table, at King Georges last Saturday. A game eagerly looked forward to by both clubs as the result would have a major bearing on the promotion battle, as both endeavoured to catch the league leaders Amersham and Chiltern.
Injury problems in the Brentwood squad lead to young hooker Jack Richards making a very promising debut, Tim Simpson filling in as an emergency scrum half and the veteran stand-off Charlie Chambers, being called up from the 2nd team to make his first appearance of the season.
Brentwood skipper Josh Woodcock won the toss and elected to play up the slope, and right from the start Tring went on the attack, only some excellent tacking by Brentwood kept them at bay, but it seemed inevitable that the away side would eventually score and they duly did after 15 minutes. When slick handling by their backs lead to an overlap being created, shortly after this Tring increased their lead to 8 – 0, when they converted a penalty, following the home side being caught off side.
Brentwood began to fight their way back into the game, they seemed to have the edge in the forwards, while the Tring backs, expertly marshalled by their outstanding number 10 had the upper hand in the backs. Towards the end of the half a good drive by the home side pack following a line out lead to the evergreen Tom King crashing over the line to bring the home team a well-earned try
Unfortunately Tring responded almost immediately when they slotted over a penalty kick taking the half time score to 5 – 11.
Playing with the slope in their favour Brentwood started the 2nd half in confident mood, and scored an early try, when again after an excellent drive by the forwards Lewis Pratley raced away to score a try in the corner which Henry Bird converted giving Brentwood the lead for the 1st time in the game. Unfortunately, Brentwood were unable to score again, as Tring began to dominate territorially scoring two further penalties taking the final score to 12-17.
All in all, a thoroughly decent game, which Tring just about deserved to win, which leaves Brentwood in 3rd place, 7 points behind Tring, with 4 games left to play. Reaching the play offs, is now very difficult, but whatever the final outcome at the end of the season all at the club have to bear in mind, that this will be the best season in the clubs history since the Rugby Football Union introduced the league system. A credit to all the first team squad and coaches, especially Steve Killington who continues to work tirelessly on behalf of the club.
The players are off for a relaxing weekend break, over Easter but return to league action, with a local derby at Chelmsford on 2nd April.
Chingford Construction man of the match Tim Simpson